New paper on Word Classes by John Mansfield
Word classes like noun, verb and adjective are one of the foundational elements of linguistic theory, however they also remain somewhat controversial. Most theoretical frameworks assume them, but many have questioned their theoretical foundations. In this chapter, John Mansfield gives a brief summary of some of the problems with the theory of word classes, and proposes some novel solutions. While formal distributional properties have become dominant in theories of word classes, Mansfield argues that semantics and pragmatics are at least as important.
Mansfield, John, 'Word classes', in Laurie Bauer, and Salvador Valera (eds), Conversion in Morphology: Theory and Typology (Oxford, 2026; online edn, Oxford Academic, 5 Mar. 2026), 10.1093/9780198943990.003.0003.